As far as I know Oīsensei redefined aikibudo to aikido in the course of his martial career..? He also stated that Aikido is the budo of love and compassion. He also engaged in religious activities in a religion that now promotes Esperanza because the goal is to unite all of mankind, to break down the barriers between "us and them".
I am no expert in Omoto Kyo at all, but I have read some of their texts and their goals and to me it seems that Aikido is the physical realisation of Omoto Kyo. Actually doing basic Aikido training
is practising Omoto Kyo principles.. This also goes very well in hand with the fact that Onosaburo Deguchi encouraged Oīsensei to use his martial skills to build a budo of love..?
So I guess in that sence we are allowed to define Aikido as liberal as we wish for as long as Aikido stays connected to itīs martial roots. And can still be considered a martial art. I think the true genius lies in the seemingly dualistic compromise we feel is somewhat a huge bite to chew that love and war are two pieces of the same puzzle.. they are inseperable in fact.

Sure....you are free to do whatever u wish. People connect to things in different ways. However, I think you also have to consider that as real as MS Flight Simulator maybe....it still is not flying a real plane. I think at some point you cross the line and it ceases to become martial. Where that is...might be exactly hard to define, but for me, I also see no reason to compromise the martial integrity to achieve the same results. Unfortunately, in my experiences, I have seen enough examples of compromise that we have way too many people doing stuff that does not really quality as a quality practice.